Reef Safe With Caution

mattzang · Nov 23, 2019

yeah seems people get away with some lps and softies, but the meaty stuff and acans and what not are just too tempting.

my plan is kind of to keep my current tank running and just turn that into a lps/softy/nem type tank with more peaceful fish

then get the bigger tank and go hog wild with slightly more aggressive fish like damsels wrasses butterflies angels, hopefully that'll keep me busy for years stocking it up and growing out sps

pcon · Nov 24, 2019

Nice Mattzang, that sounds fun. I think half the fun of the hobby is planning your next tank, and finding a little nich to dive into.

Fragged the mystic sunset montipora last night. Was growing under the duncan to the left and almost touching the zoanthids on the right.

So cut a small chunk out from the back around where it was getting close to the zoanthids.

The cutting cracked into two pieces, I stuck the small one on a plug on the sandbed near the "mother colony" and the other I put on the rocks.

If this frag does well here I may have to move some of the corals around it or something. But I struggled with this coral in other locations earlier and so I was hesitant to move to that different of flow and lighting conditions.

My friend gave up on this Dendro, and gave it to me.

Opened up about 15min of being in the tank. One of my friends who does quite well with sun corals and similar NPS, swears that they love flow. I think he is correct, its being blasted by my mp40, just outside of the direct flow but in a very high flow spot because of the shape of the rocks.

Hopefully my feeding regimen will be able to sustain it. I recently upped my autofeeder to 3x a day where one is at approximately tank midnight, (7:30am local time) but with this excellent polyp extension during the day that might not have been necessary. I started this a few days ago after noticing the polyp extension on my orange chalice and other corals hour after lights out. I am going to continue the nightfeedings for a few weeks or months to see if there is any noticeable improvement in the corals. The venusta is quite effective in discouraging acro polyp extension during the day so perhaps I can draw a little bit more growth out with a night feeding.

mattzang · Nov 24, 2019

nice, i want me some dendros but the only ones i've come across locally all look crappy

i want some sun corals too, idk why those are so much more rare. seems the people that have them say they're fairly easy and are borderline invasive if doing well

pcon · Nov 24, 2019

The friend who swears that they love high flow has about a half dozen different sun corals, and a few different dendros. one colony of the yellow sun corals that is about 6" across. the buds are almost like mini aiptasia in that tank, sometimes settling on coral skeletons and irritates the tissue. he recently lost a fox coral to a sun coral bud growing on it.

I have been really inspired by Rich Ross' personal tank, with the NPS under the shade of SPS. and the twilight zone exhibit at Cal Academy. I am really interested in trying out a few different sun corals, Dendros, Balanophyllia maybe a Rhizo if I can get one (legally of course). I am a little concerned by Matt Wandels comments on having to rehome a burgess because it was eating the baby sun coral buds, But we shall see.

pcon · Nov 30, 2019

Tank is going well, been thinking about dosing aminos for a while now and finally got a bottle of aquavitro/seachem fuel last weekend. Been dosing nightly soaked into the food for the last evening feeding, since getting it. Dendro is coloring up. Mystic sunset mothercolony's growth seems unabated after fragging. the frags are colouring up nicely. The Monti cap is still very pale. I have been dosing magnesium for a few weeks as well to try to get it to darken up. no avail on either, however the monty cap still grows so im not freaking out yet.

pcon · Dec 4, 2019

Tank is progressing well, great growth, plump fish. the green montiporas have colored up nicely since soaking one feeding a day in fule. Battery died on my autofeeder, so replaced that today. I keep putting off a big water change, did 20 gal and a floss and reactor change last wednesday. but have 45 gal ready to change this week.

Have to strongly recommend making local friends to trade frags with, got this hammer sunday from a friends tank where it was being shaded nearly to death.

These ricordia also came from the same hobbyist a few months ago, they started the size of dimes and are now about the size of a half dollar coin.

Absolutely Love the side view, not sure why the picture turned out so hazy, think I forgot to clean the outside glass.

Placed an order with Aqua Locker this morning, my first non Divers Den order from a big online retailer. Two awesome "with caution" fish coming on thursday, I am excited to share when they come in.

mattzang · Dec 4, 2019

going with:

1. burgess butterfly
2. atlantic longnose butterfly

pcon · Dec 4, 2019

mattzang said:
going with:

1. burgess butterfly
2. atlantic longnose butterfly

And mattzang gets the shaking their Christmas presents prize!

mattzang · Dec 4, 2019

hah i saw they were in stock earlier or yesterday, idk why i was even looking my current qt batch is going horribly wrong, but the addiction is real. i need to get the coral addiction back, that one is less heartbreaking when a frag dies

pcon · Dec 4, 2019

QT is one of the least fun parts of the hobby. I do feel like I go on coral kicks after I lose fish and fish kicks after I lose corals.

mattzang · Dec 4, 2019

heh, i got the fish itch awhile back, but my tank is maxed out. so i came up with the genius idea that i'd get qt tanks going and get a long term observation 40 breeder, then have some peaceful type fish ready to go for a bigger tank i was hoping to get. then i naturally started buying damsels and my mom gave me her clownfish and i'm pretty sure i don't want to put peaceful fish in there now lol.

my china wrasse, that i somehow got through qt, just refuses to eat in my DT and spends most of her day laying on the sand so i think the days are counting down, so corals are looking a lot more appealing suddenly. dips aren't so bad for corals when compared to the mess that is running a qt tank

pcon · Dec 4, 2019

The Anampses seem miserably difficult to, not only get, but keep eating. Those and the leopards scare me to try to get through QT. I kinda have in my mind a mystery wrasse as one of the last fish for this tank. We will see if that happens or I upgrade first, or some other wrasse catches my heart.

mattzang · Dec 4, 2019

yeah, i thought i got lucky.. at the lfs it was eating pellets! but when i got it home eating was really hit or miss. one day it'd eat some pellets, next day not. now it even ignores live blackworms

might have to order those through humblefish or his compatriots. altho i did just find an lfs that has leopard wrasses frequently for $25, guessing meleagris, but i might be willing to throw down $50 and try a couple.

pcon · Dec 4, 2019

Seems like the kind of fish that there is “shipping stress” just bringing it home from the store. I also worry about cyanide when I hear stories like that. Eating with gusto and slowly stopping and rotting away.

Meleagaris are nice; I like them more than the bipartitus. Potters, blacks and choats are the ones that really tempt me.

mattzang · Dec 4, 2019

i mean i like all of the leopards, but of the more common ones i really like the ornate ones. apparently those are easier for a leopard, but still quite challenging.

after my china wrasse i think i need a breather for difficult fish tho

hopefully the butterflies eat well for you. i'm really curious your experience with the prognathodes will go. my understanding is it should be mostly reef safe, but gotta be some inherant risk with it. seems the rest of the family is super deep water, but i believe the longnose is collected fairly easy in shallower water

pcon · Dec 4, 2019

Good to know on the ornates, they are also a nice one, There is a LFS around me with one and a Joculator, in one of their displays.

I got a good break from titchy fish with the longnose hawk.

Yeah, not a whole lot of information on P. aculeatus so I am a bit nervous about how conditioning is going to go. I got some good tips from Wrangy as he is the only person outside public aquaria, I know of, with experience in the genus. Does sound like they are shallower than the rest of the family, Fish base says: "1 - 100 m (Ref. 110583), usually 15 - 55 m (Ref. 110583)" where the para-sympatric P. aya: "20 - 170 m (Ref. 47838), usually 45 - 170 m (Ref. 47838)" I am wondering if P. aculeatus will benefit from light acclimation like the burgess and venusta did. I probably will just put it through the same light acclimation as the new burgess, I am thinking I will QT them together, I haven't decided on if I will divide them on arrival.

pcon · Dec 5, 2019

So the bicolor octospawn hasnt been looking very happy this week.

I suspect that the head in the rear isn't getting enough flow, You can see in the video that the polyp isn't moving.

So I think I am going to move that head to the location illustrated. The blue hammer and frogspawn that it will be between are growing well, so I suspect the flow may be better there. Any thoughts?

There is an elegant french phrase, my highschool friend would often use, from wine making, I can't remember or find it for the life of me, it translates roughly to: 3 meters up or 3 meters over, the grapes and wine will be no good. Coral always evokes the memory of my friend telling me that phrase; a few inches can make all the difference in coral health.

End with some eye candy: late night feeding of the tank, dendro with tentacles covered in food, and a brief cameo of the Venusta. (sorry mobile users)

mattzang · Dec 5, 2019

did they arrive? pics!

pcon · Dec 5, 2019

Nope, so much for guaranteed by 10:30 am! The first burgess I ordered also took an extra day to arrive, luckily that one arrived alive. Hopefully they get here today.